Packaging for products can take many forms. One typical type of packaging comprises a display card or panel that is capable of being displayed, e.g., by hanging on a hook on a display rack. The product is held in a molded, clear plastic film that is attached to the panel. The plastic film is typically manufactured using a thermoforming process. Thermoforming is a technique often used to form packaging for products and involves heating a sheet of a thermoplastic material to a forming temperature at which the material becomes pliable. The sheet is then molded to a desired shape and cured so that it retains that shape.
A typical thermoforming process utilizes two complementary shaped molds. The two molds include a positive mold that defines the convex portion of the shape of the film, and a negative mold that defines the concave portion of the shape of the film. With the heated positioned between the molds, the negative mold is pressed into the positive mold, or vice versa, to form the sheet into the shape defined by the molds. The molded sheet is then cured so that it retains the molded shape. Other thermoforming processes utilize vacuum pressure to draw a heated sheet into a mold that has an inner contour with the desired shape.
While such thermoforming processes are effective for packaging products, they require that a separate mold be used to mold the packaging for each product. Creating a separate mold for each product can be expensive. In many cases, a generic mold having a common shape is used for many different products of similar size and shape. As a result, the products are often able to move around within the packaging which can sometimes result in damage to the product and/or the packaging.